Research report on impact of mass marketed scams

The Office of Fair Trading has published a research report on the impact of mass marketed scams, focusing on:

• Prize draw/sweepstake scams.
• Foreign lottery scams.
• Work at home and business opportunity scams.
• Premium rate telephone prize scams.
• Miracle health and slimming cure scams.
• African advance fee frauds/foreign money making scams.
• Clairvoyant/psychic mailing scams.
• Property investor scams.
• Pyramid selling and chain letter scams.
• Bogus holiday club scams.
• Internet dialler scams.
• Career opportunity (model/author/inventor) scams.
• High risk investment scams.
• Internet matrix scheme scams.
• Loan scams.

The report finds that mass marketed scams are a huge problem, international in their scope, reach and organisation.

It comments that cheap methods of mass communication, such as direct mail, telephone, email and the internet bring great economic benefits, but they are also tools to perpetrate fraud and deception on a global scale.

The research showed that:

• Around 6.5 per cent of the UK adult population (3.2 million people) fall victim to scams every year, to a cost of around £3.5 billion.
• Anyone can be taken in because scams are customised to fit the profile of the people being targeted. There really is a scam for everyone.
• Although older consumers are more likely to be targeted by a scam (over-55s accounting for almost half of people claiming to have been targeted), there is no evidence to suggest that older people are more likely to be victims.
• Fewer than five per cent of people report scams to the authorities.

The report can be found in full via http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Press+releases/2006/181-06.htm

Provisions to help tackle cross border scams were brought into force on January 8 2007 by way of SI 3363/2006 (see SI section).